Vt. Yankee Technicians Get Ready For Storm

Technicians at Vermont Yankee
are preparing for the high winds and prolonged power outages expected from
Hurricane Sandy.

The state's only nuclear
power plant now gets back-up power from two diesel generators and a line that feeds
electricity from a nearby power dam in Vernon.

Rob William is a spokesman
for Entergy Vermont Yankee. He says the plant is ready for the storm.

"We've taken several actions,
including testing our on-site emergency diesel generators which provide station
power should we loss the off-site power," he says. "We're also topping off the
diesel fuel tanks for those generators. And (we're) also doing walk-downs of
the plant to secure any equipment and material susceptible to high winds."

Williams says the plant has
enough diesel fuel on hand to provide back up power for about a week. He says
the generators are needed because if the plant is shutdown, pumps still have to
be operated to provide cooling water to the reactor.

Next year the electricity
line from the Vernon dam will no longer be available as a redundant supply
of electricity. So Yankee has also asked state and federal regulators for
permission to install a third diesel generator because

Sarah Hofmann is deputy
commissioner of the Department of Public Service, the agency that represents
the public in utility issues. She says the new generator is designed to provide
a completely independent source of back-up power.

"It would have to have its
own fuel source. Even though there's a tank there with diesel oil in it feeding
the first two emergency generators, this would be a different fuel source," she
says. "It would have to have a separate tank."

The state supports the
installation of the new generator, even though it wants to shut down the Yankee
plant. Hofmann says as long as Yankee is operating, it needs to have all the
equipment necessary to withstand natural disasters.